Donors lack credible strategy for increasing support to non-Western humanitarians

Nordic donors say they will use the UN-led country-based pooled funds as their main conduit for increasing humanitarian funding of local and national organisations to 25 per cent of the total. But the managers of these funds say this is unrealistic.

The UN funds make up a tiny portion of total humanitarian aid given by governments - just USD 700 million out of USD 22 billion in 2015. “The 3 per cent cannot deliver the 25 per cent,” says Andrea De Domenico at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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The Amaila Falls hydropower project can be built more cheaply than previously believed, and should be approved as a “priority project” by the government of Guyana, a Norwegian-financed report concludes.

Norway’s Climate Ministry has ignored Norwegian budget regulations requiring that USD 80 million (NOK 600m) for the Amaila Falls hydropower project be refunded to state coffers since the money has remained unspent for two years.

“The only realistic path for Guyana towards an emission free electricity sector is by developing its hydropower potential. The fastest way forward is to maintain [the Amaila Falls project] as the first major step for substituting its current oil fired generation.”